Murfreesboro Medical Clinic (MMC) has agreed to adopt a written Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) nondiscrimination policy and pay $2,500 in compensatory damages to resolve ADA allegations, announced Don Cochran, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. MMC has also agreed to provide ADA compliance training to its staff members who may interact with individuals with disabilities.
“The protections of the ADA are critically important to citizens with disabilities, particularly in obtaining necessary medical treatment,” said U.S. Attorney Cochran. “This is especially true of our senior population, and this office will continue its efforts to enforce the requirements of the ADA and its enacting regulations.”
MMC is a physician owned, multi-specialty clinic and an Accredited Surgery Center located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, that provides a wide variety of medical and surgical procedures in over 20 specialties. MMC also operates five additional healthcare locations in Tennessee, including walk-in clinics in Murfreesboro and a spine, joint, and pain facility in Manchester.
The settlement resolves allegations made by a woman who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, who was denied medical treatment at the office of Dr. Joseph Boone due to her inability to transfer from her wheelchair to an examination chair.
The woman alleged MMC had informed her that she would need to bring someone with her to her appointment to help her transition to the examination chair, and then refused to make reasonable modifications to its practices in order to perform her examination. This forced her to seek care at a different medical facility further away from her home.
This case is a product of the Elder Justice Task Force of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, and part of the Department of Justice’s Elder Justice Initiative. For more information about the Elder Justice Task Force and the Department’s Elder Justice Initiative, visit their websites at https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdtn/elder-justice-task-force and https://www.justice.gov/elderjustice/.
Assistant United States Attorney Christopher C. Sabis handled the matter on behalf of the United States.